A Huge Heap of Trash

I found the auto-pilot box and plotted the coordinates for Skorgulian. For several hours, I stared into deep space. After what happened, I was on the look out for more spawn of Chaos.

Kaine of the Adeptus Mechanicus bleeped “Look!”

And there it was. It was evil, alright, but not quite what I expected. It was huge, about the size of half a dozen battleships…or maybe it was half a dozen battleships…and Eldar cruisers, Ork frigates, and other ships I did not recognize. They were all squeezed together like garbage after going through a compactor.

Schwuck, who was usually quiet, blurted out “Space-hulk!”

Before I could reach the pilot box, I felt the pod going off course. We were caught in the hulk’s gravitational field. We were plunging into a jutting lance turret of a Mars class Imperial Battle Cruiser. I then felt gravity shift starboard. I was born and raised in a ship but my poor stomach lurched.

A strange fin-like structure loomed in the porthole, getting bigger and bigger, closer and closer.

Boom!

And everything went dark.

“We crashed.” Schwuck said plaintively.

After a few bleeps, Kaine announced “We are inside a ship.”

“Durga!” I cried, for there she was, prone on the floor of the pod. She wasn’t strapped in when we crashed.

She touched her forehead. “Oh my head!” She stood to inspect her bruises. Luckily, nothing more.

I checked the atmosphere readings: low radiation, oxygen, nitrogen, base air pressure. “This should be breathable.” I reported.

We all unbuckled the safety straps and the men started to stretch their legs. Kaine detached his built-in missile launcher and installed it into the servitor.

We open the hatch and Durga twitched her nose. “It smells like rotten garbage.”

“Can we close that hatch, please?” Kaine suggested. Tech-Priest that he is, he hates strong smells.

But we press on. We realize that we have crashed into a long corridor. We use the servitor to light the way. We walk with the foot soldiers and Salvador at the rear.